ONLY IF IT IS GOD’S WILL!

ONLY IF IT IS GOD’S WILL!

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. —James 4:13-17

               Where is our focus?  How are we thinking about life? What are our priorities?  Who do we think is in control?  Do we make plans without consulting with our Lord?  Are we living to focus only on the temporal?

               We do not know what tomorrow will bring and so when we make plans, we are also to acknowledge that “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”  Our very life breath is in His control.  When He says we take our last breath then we take out last breath.  This is what we need to acknowledge— our life is in Him— He controls it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPqHufcoreg

               Oh, how short are our lives!  When I speak to youth today, I remind them that I was their age once… a few decades ago…  and how quickly I have made it to this age.  When we are young we do not think about us being old.  When we are young our parents are old and our grandparents are very old and our great-grandparents are really, really old… even though great-grandparents are only in their 90’s.  “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”  My great-grandparents have been gone for a half-century, the last of my grandparents 25 years after that and my final parent less than 10 years after that.  Yes, life goes by quickly.  Remind young people of that and to get prepared for death in their youth by calling on Jesus and then living for Him now.  Then to be with Him forever in that perfect place— heaven.

               Arrogance and boasting is evil — thinking we can plan without considering God’s plans and purposes.  If we continue with that attitude we will be in for a very rude awakening.  We ought to say “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”  It is the Lord’s will that will be done.  May we truly consider His will.  To not consider His control is sinful, thinking we are in control.  That is fool-hearted.  Let us do the right thing and acknowledge He is in control and we are to consider Him and His will in all we do.  Yes, Dear Father, may that be so by the power of Your Holy Spirit and in the authority of Your Precious Son, Jesus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYkZE8AogDE